Moss — Chemical Notes on a Stone Lamp from Ballyhetayh. 167 



that 8ome other explanation of tliis relatively large quantity of sulphur must 

 be sought : I suggest it is to be found in the use of sulphur matches. It may 

 be assumed that when the lamp was in use the mode of procuring a light was 

 by means of flint and steel. This method was in common use among the 

 peasantry as late as fifty years ago. The spark of incandescent iron kindled 

 tinder, or iai later times paper prepared with nitre ; and the smouldering tinder 

 or paper was used to ignite slips of wood tipped with sulphur, or " spunks," 

 as they were called. The frequent use of sulphur matches of this type to 

 light the lamp would ine\dtably introduce sul]»]mr into the grease. used in the 

 lamp, and lead to the production of sulphides and sulphites, which would 

 eventually oxidize to sulphates. 



The foregoing oljservations do not throw any light upon the probable age 

 of the lamp, except that the very distinct tallowy odour of the grease suggests 

 that it cannot be very ancient. Colonel W. G. Wood-lVIartin (" The Lake 

 Dwellings of Ireland," page 142) refers to the use of a very primitive kind of 

 lamp near Carrickfergus, and in the islands off the Ulster coast, so late as the 

 year 1840. The lamp, of which he gives a figure, is a saucepan-shaped iron 

 vessel, with a long pointed lip for the wick. The stone lamp is scaicely more 

 primitive ; and it may have been in use in this country in out-of-the-way 

 places within the past century ; though it seems strauge that so little should 

 have been recorded about this, or indeed any kind of lamp in Ireland. 



Through the kindness of Mr. George Coffey I have been able to examine 

 some similar stone vessels in the Eoyal Iiish Academy collection in the 

 National Museum. 



The vessel from the Blasket Islands, formerly supposed to be a chalice, 

 figs. 4 and 4a in the paper I have ah-eady quoted by Mr. Armsti'ong, weighs 

 2130 grammes, and its specific gravity is 2'42. When treated with ether, it 

 yields a greasy substance of a brown colour, weighing 1'34 gramme. This 

 corresponds to 0'06 per cent, of the weight of the vessel. The greasy 

 substance burns with a smoky flame ; it has a strong smell like the smoke 

 of peat, but more aromatic, suggesting incense. I could not, however, 

 detect anything that would point to the use of incense-resins such as benzoin 

 or olibanam. About 70 per cent, of the greasy substance dissolves easily in 

 alcohol; the solution is acid, and with caustic alkali it yields a soap-like 

 body which is decomposed by a mineral acid with the separation of a substance 

 which behaves as a mixture of fatty acids. It was hopeless to ideiitif)' the 

 constituents of so small a quantity. The portion not readily soluble in 

 alcohol behaved like a gmn-resm. It afforded some evidence of the pi-esence 

 of succinic acid ; liut I could not positively identify that acid m the few 

 milligrammes available. 



[25»] 



